The 55 mile per hour speed limit was wonderful in one respect - it showed that when a law that is wrong, it is ignored and laughed at, and then respect of all laws is reduced..
One might argue the same is true with regard to marijuana, but that is not the thrust of this post.
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You see Americans have internalized the lesson that stupid laws are to be ignored. So we became a nation of law breakers. In fact, if you remember the arguments about the speed limit, this was one of the primary arguments police made for removing the 55 MPH limit. it trained us all to be lawbreakers.
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Well, on a much greater scale, our government is training us all to be law breakers. When Bush and Obama ignore the laws of the country, they have trained us to stop believing the government. Politicians long ago convinced us that any lie to get ahead is acceptable (close Gitmo, Balance the Budget, No New Taxes, I Did Not Have Sex with that woman....). Now they are training us that the idea of communal American interests is anachronistic and pathetic.
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I can make fun of Team Partiers' internal contradictions (and they of mine), and joke about conspiracy theorists all day - but when our government breaks the law, lies about it and then refuses to prosecute, I kind of think the joke is on us. The only person the government is going after with gusto right now, is a whistle blower that published what they said. No wrong doing exposed, no illegal activity, payments or lies. Just the guy that pointed these out. In the private sector, we lamented that no one at Enron or inside Wall Street did this. When the wrong doing is exposed in the government, we treat him inhumanly in jail. Certainly Wall Street or Enron wished they had that power to bully and torture people. (Yes, the UN, The British Government and our own spokesperson for the army said what we did to Bradley Manning - a low level whistle blower, was torture. By America's own definitional standards.)
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When General Electric pays no taxes and Exxon gets money from the government - and Congress will not fix either situation, then the spirit of unity as a nation goes out the window. Why should I pay more taxes than GE - particularly when these companies can now donate whatever they want to candidates.
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It is no wonder that the next generation is a "me first" group of entitled cry-babies, this is what is rewarded in this country.
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Sign me - saddened.
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Oh and what is the latest law that the government has broken and ignored? The War Powers Act. For those of your that don't remember back in the old days before we attacked everything that moved, we followed some laws. One, the Constitution, quaintly says only congress shall declare war. After Vietnam, Congress passed the War Powers Act, that says the President can authorize military action if we are threatened for 60 days, before the 60 days are up the President MUST go to Congress for authorization. You can argue that Libya was or was not threatening us, but it has been 75 days (and counting) since we starting attacking them. Exactly what the War Powers Act (passed bi-partisan) was meant to prevent. A vote in Congress was shelved in the Senate by the Democrats and in the House by the Republicans that would have forced a vote to allow continued action in Libya. It is better to violate US Law by allowing a simple vote, than possibly be embarrassed because some Congressional Office Holders will vote against the war. Read that sentence again. IT IS BETTER TO VIOLATE US LAW THAN EMBARRASS CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT.
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We are no longer a nation of laws.